# Another Democrat Crook **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 3, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284 "2009-02-03T18:18:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/21 "2009-02-03T21:13:26Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I really don’t understand why she fell on the sword, when her problem was the smallest, monetarily, and she fixed it years ago, as opposed to discovering it during the confirmation process. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Certainly Obama, given his support in the other two cases and his statement regarding her as one of his most important choices, would be most reluctant to accept her withdrawal. How can you refuse a president for such a trivial matter? This small item must be a smokescreen for something far more serious that she would wish remains uncovered. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/22 "2009-02-03T21:17:48Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > It doesn’t make any sense at all. Certainly Obama, given his support in the other two cases and his statement regarding her as one of his most important choices, would be most reluctant to accept her withdrawal. How can you refuse a president for such a trivial matter? > > This small item must be a smokescreen for something far more serious that she would wish remains uncovered. Or, she just decided that “fuck 'em, they want to grill me over something that trivial from that long ago that I fixed as soon as I found out, there’s no reasonable way that I could expect to do the job offered” ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/23 "2009-02-03T21:31:18Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > A system in place to publicize everyone’s tax records? I wouldn’t go for that. Not everyone’s. Those seeking Federal office, though. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that all applicants for federal office should have to publish their finances _en toto_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/24 "2009-02-03T21:41:44Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > This whole thing has very little to do with Republicans being better than Democrats or vice versa. It has to do with a basic difference in party personalities. Imagine Bush-Cheney in this situation. Would they be wringing their hands like this for a Senate minority? Would one of their own party’s committee chairman be trying to torpedo a Republican nominee (cf. Baucus)? No, they’d tell the Republican majority to shut up and do the president’s bidding, and they’d tell the Democratic minority to go fuck themselves. No shame, no apologies, no concessions. Republicans are prepared to ride their party to hell. Democrats, not so much. Uh, no. When questions like this came up about Linda Chavez, it killed her nomination for Secretary of Labor. Turns out that the woman in question that Chavez gave money to wasn’t even an employee - she was a victim of domestic abuse that needed help. Didn’t matter - it was enough. Just like it is enough now, and was enough for Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood. The real third rail in American politics is paying off the maid. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/25 "2009-02-03T21:45:44Z")
Better tax evaders in office than war criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/26 "2009-02-03T21:54:54Z")
> [@wring](#): > > Or, she just decided that “fuck 'em, they want to grill me over something that trivial from that long ago that I fixed as soon as I found out, there’s no reasonable way that I could expect to do the job offered” Trouble is, she damages Obama with this attitude. ---
**Author:** ![Ocean\_Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8797f3/32.png) [@Ocean\_Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ocean_Annie)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/27 "2009-02-03T21:54:55Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > Never mind the ex Illinois governor’s crookedness. Tim Geithner,Tom Daschle, and now [Nancy Killefer](http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090203/usa/us_politics_obama_nominee_2) > > These are Democrats who are often charged with wanting to raise everyone’s taxes. Except their own of course. In these cases anyway. > > Three cabinet appointees out of how many ? > > Before I make a judgement on Democrats in general, could any one tell me how many of Bush’s cabinet appointments were caught tax cheating ? Oh Please, Bush unapologetically had the most pro-corporate, lobbyist laden administration in history. Not only do the Benedict Arnolds of corporate America not pay taxes, they ran Bush’s White House. The Democrats are as much a part of the corrupt culture in Washington, but it takes a high level of hypocrisy or denial to believe the Republicans, especially the former Bush administration, exemplify law abiding tax paying citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/28 "2009-02-03T22:01:49Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Not everyone’s. Those seeking Federal office, though. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that all applicants for federal office should have to publish their finances _en toto_. This would require a constitutional amendment because of Powell v. McCormack and it would be a pretty significant invasion of privacy. By my lights, we need more people willing to assume public office, not fewer. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/29 "2009-02-03T22:02:59Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Trouble is, she damages Obama with this attitude. If she believes she’d be ineffectual in her job given the climate, I can’t argue w/her reasons. And, I rather resent the attitude of “if she resigned over this it must be because she’s got much bigger problems in her background” ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/30 "2009-02-04T00:29:26Z")
**Another Republican crook** : Spiro Agnew ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/31 "2009-02-04T04:07:37Z")
Spiro story: The local paper was publishing _Pogo_ when Kelly was heartily lampooning Nixon, especially Nixon’s move to install White House guards with silly uniforms. Spiro was depicted wearing one, an unflattering canine caricature. This prompted a stern letter to the editor railing with high dudgeon about the Vice President being depicted as a dog. For shame, sirs! Cancel my subscription etc. A few days later, a letter appeared from a zoology professor at the U. He remarked that the complaining writer had his facts wrong. Kelly was painstakingly precise in his caricature, the shape of the muzzle, the ears were exactingly correct, leaving no question that Spiro was not presented as a dog, but as a hyena. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/32 "2009-02-04T04:36:11Z")
> [@wring](#): > > If she believes she’d be ineffectual in her job given the climate, I can’t argue w/her reasons. How about with her timing? It’s rather well accepted that appointments to important government jobs entail significant scrutiny. If you think you can’t withstand that, you should decline any request to participate. If you accept, you should be prepared to go through with it. If you quickly wither under the normal scrutiny, you do no one any good, least of all the poor guy who asked you to help his administration succeed. > [@](#): > > And, I rather resent the attitude of “if she resigned over this it must be because she’s got much bigger problems in her background” When actions are insufficiently explained by what’s known, speculation shouldn’t be surprising. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/33 "2009-02-04T09:41:41Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > It doesn’t make any sense at all. Certainly Obama, given his support in the other two cases and his statement regarding her as one of his most important choices, would be most reluctant to accept her withdrawal. How can you refuse a president for such a trivial matter? > > This small item must be a smokescreen for something far more serious that she would wish remains uncovered. This is an example of fallacy: argument from ignorance. “We don’t know what her secret crime is, so it must exist.” If you have evidence, present it. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/34 "2009-02-04T09:45:40Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > Before I make a judgement on Democrats in general, could any one tell me how many of Bush’s cabinet appointments were caught tax cheating ? > [@Ocean\_Annie](#): > > Oh Please, Bush unapologetically had the most pro-corporate, lobbyist laden administration in history. Not only do the Benedict Arnolds of corporate America not pay taxes, they ran Bush’s White House. The Democrats are as much a part of the corrupt culture in Washington, but it takes a high level of hypocrisy or denial to believe the Republicans, especially the former Bush administration, exemplify law abiding tax paying citizens. This is non-responsive. How many of Bush’s cabinet appointments were caught tax cheating? Like the previous response, you seem to invite the reader to conclude that even though we don’t have a specific answer, we must conclude something favorable to your point. That’s not the way it works. If you have evidence, present it. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/35 "2009-02-04T13:57:37Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > This is non-responsive. How many of Bush’s cabinet appointments were caught tax cheating? Like the previous response, you seem to invite the reader to conclude that even though we don’t have a specific answer, we must conclude something favorable to your point. That’s not the way it works. If you have evidence, present it. How about Bush himself? While not exactly tax cheating, Bush was delinquent multiple times in filing with the SEC. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/36 "2009-02-04T14:20:10Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I really don’t understand why she fell on the sword, when her problem was the smallest, monetarily, and she fixed it years ago, as opposed to discovering it during the confirmation process. Talking heads call it the “Rule of Three”. She was, by happenstance, the third person to emerge with a similar backstory, and thus established a trend. The RoT apparently has applied historically. By the way, has the OP ever heard of [Catalina Vasquez Villalpando](http://tech.mit.edu/V114/N7/tax.07w.html)? Or for that matter, [George W. Bush](http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=290)? ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/37 "2009-02-04T14:35:41Z")
And down the convenient Republican memory hole they go [Linda Chavez](http://www.hindu.com/2001/01/11/stories/03110008.htm) > [@](#): > > In what is clearly the first major setback to the transition efforts of the President-elect, Mr. George W. Bush, his Labour Secretary nominee, Ms. Linda Chavez, has withdrawn her name in the wake of growing criticism in the last few days of the alleged assistance she gave to an illegal alien. > > Complaining that a `search and destroy'' effort was forcing her to get out of the incoming Bush administration, Ms. Chavez announced on Tuesday afternoon that her relationship with a Guatemalan immigrant in the early 1990's had become a `distraction’'. > > At a time when Ms. Chavez’s professional and ideological credentials were undergoing intense scrutiny by Democrats and Labour groups, news surfaced that she had an illegal alien stay with her for about two years doing a variety of odd jobs and in return getting free housing and some spending money. > > Critics immediately pounced on Ms. Chavez, saying she had not been paying a proper salary and social security. And [Bernard Kerik](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56247-2004Dec10.html) > [@](#): > > Former New York City police commissioner Bernard B. Kerik withdrew as President Bush’s nominee for secretary of homeland security last night, saying he had not paid taxes for a domestic worker who may have been an illegal immigrant. And these are excluding the ones withdrawn for their contacts with Abramoff, voter suppression or as in the case of Miers, grotesque unsuitability. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/38 "2009-02-04T14:52:39Z")
Look at it this way, by simply making nominations, Obama has enriched the coffers of the IRS, and therefore the citizens of these great United States, by nearly a QUARTER MILLION DOLLARS!! Brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/39 "2009-02-04T14:55:40Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > [Bernard Kerik](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56247-2004Dec10.html) Kerik wasn’t done in by a nanny problem. If he had been, I’d be celebrating nanny problems for having prevented him from becoming Homeland Security Secretary. [Bernard Kerik](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/bernard_b_kerik/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=bernard%20kerik&st=cse) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284/40 "2009-02-04T15:18:09Z")
No doubt posted somewhere, just a few years ago… Personally, I blame the LIBERAL MEDIA and their VENDETTA against their ideological FOES. This would never happen if their butt buddies, the DEMOCRATS, hijacked the reins of office from the rightful owners. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-democrat-crook/484284.md?page=3)